Legacy Documentation: Version 2018.2 (Go to current version)
LanguageEnglish
  • C#

NetworkWriter

class in UnityEngine.Networking

Suggest a change

Success!

Thank you for helping us improve the quality of Unity Documentation. Although we cannot accept all submissions, we do read each suggested change from our users and will make updates where applicable.

Close

Submission failed

For some reason your suggested change could not be submitted. Please <a>try again</a> in a few minutes. And thank you for taking the time to help us improve the quality of Unity Documentation.

Close

Cancel

Description

General purpose serializer for UNET (for serializing data to byte arrays).

using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.Networking;

public class ExampleScript : MonoBehaviour { // Writing data to a NetworkWriter and then // Converting this to a NetworkReader. void Start() { // The data you add to your writer must be prefixed with a message type. // This is in the form of a short. short myMsgType = 143;

NetworkWriter writer = new NetworkWriter();

// You start the message in your writer by passing in the message type. // This is a short meaning that it will take up 2 bytes at the start of // your message. writer.StartMessage(myMsgType);

// You can now begin your message. In this case we will just use strings. writer.Write("Test data 1"); writer.Write("Test data 2"); writer.Write("Test data 3");

// Make sure to end your message with FinishMessage() writer.FinishMessage();

// You can now access the data in your writer. ToArray() returns a copy // of the bytes that the writer is using and AsArray() returns the // internal array of bytes, not a copy. byte[] writerData = writer.ToArray();

CreateNetworkReader(writerData); }

void CreateNetworkReader(byte[] data) { // We will create the NetworkReader using the data from our previous // NetworkWriter. NetworkReader networkReader = new NetworkReader(data);

// The first two bytes in the buffer represent the size // of the message. This is equal to the NetworkReader.Length // minus the size of the prefix. byte[] readerMsgSizeData = networkReader.ReadBytes(2); short readerMsgSize = (short)((readerMsgSizeData[1] << 8) + readerMsgSizeData[0]); Debug.Log(readerMsgSize);

// The message type added in NetworkWriter.StartMessage // is to be read now. It is a short and so consists of // two bytes. It is the second two bytes on the buffer. byte[] readerMsgTypeData = networkReader.ReadBytes(2); short readerMsgType = (short)((readerMsgTypeData[1] << 8) + readerMsgTypeData[0]); Debug.Log(readerMsgType);

// If all of your data is of the same type (in this case the // data on our buffer is comprised of only strings) you can // read all the data from the buffer using a loop like so. while (networkReader.Position < networkReader.Length) { Debug.Log(networkReader.ReadString()); } } }

Properties

PositionThe current position of the internal buffer.

Constructors

NetworkWriterCreates a new NetworkWriter object.

Public Methods

AsArrayReturns the internal array of bytes the writer is using. This is NOT a copy.
FinishMessageThis fills out the size header of a message begun with StartMessage(), so that it can be send using Send() functions.
SeekZeroSeeks to the start of the internal buffer.
StartMessageThis begins a new message, which should be completed with FinishMessage() once the payload has been written.
ToArrayReturns a copy of internal array of bytes the writer is using, it copies only the bytes used.
WriteThis writes a reference to an object, value, buffer or network message, together with a NetworkIdentity component to the stream.
WriteBytesAndSizeThis writes a 16-bit count and an array of bytes of that length to the stream.
WriteBytesFullThis writes a 16-bit count and an array of bytes of that size to the stream.
WritePackedUInt32This writes the 32-bit value to the stream using variable-length-encoding.
WritePackedUInt64This writes the 64-bit value to the stream using variable-length-encoding.

Did you find this page useful? Please give it a rating: